Prep Girls Hoops: Eastland clinches Pearl City Regional title

PEARL CITY - Lexis Macomber eyes welled up as a stress fracture in her foot and a torn meniscus relegated her to street clothes and crutches.

That was last year.

Friday night, the junior center cried tears of joy after Eastland's hard-fought Pearl City Regional final victory against Aquin, 64-58.

Macomber finished with a game-high 22 points.

"Last year in regionals we lost right away," said Macomber as she fought back tears. "It feels great to win.

"This means a lot and it's an honor to play girls basketball. But I give full credit to my team."

The Cougars won their first regional crown in three years.

Eastland (25-5) needed a full team effort to thwart Aquin (21-10) throughout the game. The Bulldogs were within nine points or less throughout the entire second half and several times made it a one-possession game.

The Cougars offense was stagnant to start the third quarter as the Bulldogs 2-3 zone collapsed hard on Macomber in the paint. Eastland got its spark off the bench from Miranda Grisham (six points) to get out of a rut with four points for a 39-32 lead.

"She's always been good coming off the bench," Hannah Hake said. "She's a great player that focuses mostly on defense, but for her to step up on offense proves she's a good, all-around player."

Hake contributed a team-leading 10 points in the second half to help the Cougars extend their lead to 48-41 going into the fourth.

Aquin's 8-2 run three minutes into the fourth quarter put it back in the game. But the Bulldogs weren't able to turn the corner, even after cutting Eastland's lead to 54-53 with less than two minutes to go.

"Our defense just tried to contest their shooters," Eastland coach Colleen Finn-Henze said. "They have three-pointer shooters everywhere and they drive well to the basket.

"They're very hard to guard."

Eastland actually had its best defensive effort in the first quarter, holding Aquin to nine points.

"Offensively we worked with the drive and dish and found that successful at times," Aquin guard Haley Chang said. "We didn't do that much in the first quarter, which is probably another thing that killed us.

"But they played well."

With both teams in foul trouble, having the lead was paramount. Eastland held on and Aquin was forced to foul to preserve time. The Cougars made enough free throws to advance to next week's Forreston Sectional.

Eastland will play Galena in the sectional semifinals. Aquin's postseason run ended following back-to-back state titles. The Bulldogs are without a regional title for just the second time in five years.

"Aquin had a great run but now it's our turn to try to go all the way if we can," Hake said. "We have a lot of work to do still, but this means so much to us."